Can water mites control populations of planktonic Cladocera?

✍ Scribed by V. F. Matveev; C. C. Martinez

• Book ID: 104623420
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 366 KB
• Volume: 198
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5141
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00048637

✦ Synopsis

Predatory pelagic water mites, Piona sp ., in a small subtropical lake of Argentina showed rapid numerical response and protection from fish consumption . In experiments, predation rates of Piona on cladocerans equalled those of the principle lake planktivore, Moenkhausia intermedia Eigenmann (about 100 prey • predator -' day -') . As a result, the mites caused a summer depression in the dominant lake zooplankter, Daphnia laevis Birge, evidenced by the analysis of its population dynamics and simple modelling .